Alonso's wins in Malaysia and Europe have definitely been the two most impressive wins this season. However, my favorite was probably Rosberg in China. Special, considering how long it took him, or Maldonado's win in Spain, as for both a first-time winner and Williams' fist race victory in 8 years.

they won because the cars in front had reliability issues. Those were Vettel and Hamiltons victories

The best victory for me was wihtout a doubt Lewis in Austin, I hate Hamilton but damn, he beat Vettel with an inferior car and incredible consistent lap times.

Inferior? 1-2 seconds faster than Webber and easily gain on Vettel doesn't sound like inferior, certainly not with Button setting fast laps further back.Practice times are not an indication of a car's ultimate pace, otherwise Vettel would have a heap of 'inferior' wins.

Inferior? 1-2 seconds faster than Webber and easily gain on Vettel doesn't sound like inferior, certainly not with Button setting fast laps further back.Practice times are not an indication of a car's ultimate pace, otherwise Vettel would have a heap of 'inferior' wins.

Rosberg's and Maldonado's wins are my two favourite since I watch F1. And it's incredible they both happened in the same year so I can vote only for one of them in the poll! It needed to be vote for Maldonado, because I support Williams for the first place and they are more important to me as a team than any particular driver. But Rosberg's win was also great. He was driving like a robot that weekend. Many people claimed he would never won a race so I'm happy he was able to prove otherwise.

Its just generally how people who have any sort of emotional investment into the sport feel towards their favored team/driver in that sort of situation. Were you not happy to see Lewis retire and Kimi inherit the lead? If you were, then it'd be logical to be thankful for it happening. Otherwise you wouldn't have enjoyed that feeling.

It's always great to see someones first win so Rosberg's and Maldonado's wins were something extra.
Rosberg trying so hard, so many years. Maldonado's birthday present win for Frank Williams, after terrible Williams results one year before.
But Kimi's was even better - kind of first win that too - first after his comback to F1

Its just generally how people who have any sort of emotional investment into the sport feel towards their favored team/driver in that sort of situation. Were you not happy to see Lewis retire and Kimi inherit the lead? If you were, then it'd be logical to be thankful for it happening. Otherwise you wouldn't have enjoyed that feeling.

Not really no.

His luck last season was dreadful, and despite not being a fan of his by all means, it was sad to see so many problems on his end.

If he didn't retire, Kimi most likely wouldn't have won, though. Are you really not thankful for that?

I dont see why some of you seem to defensive about this.

It is one thing if the car had broken down few laps before the chequered flag or at least after 3/4th of the race. A car that couldn't finish even one-third was never in the race, IMO. There were at least four other drivers who should have won ahead of him that day. One driver's car breaking down is not that big a deal. In fact, the McLaren car has had a habit of breaking down quite frequently. A characteristically unreliable car is nothing to be thankful about. It was a totally earned win.

Hamilton's Austin win probably steals it, him & Vettel going at it flat out nose to tail, the suspense built up & up until he took what was probably his only chance. Kimi's AbDab win is a very close second with Alonso's Valencia drive third. Tough one though, lots of top drives last year.

It is one thing if the car had broken down few laps before the chequered flag or at least after 3/4th of the race. A car that couldn't finish even one-third was never in the race, IMO. There were at least four other drivers who should have won ahead of him that day. One driver's car breaking down is not that big a deal. In fact, the McLaren car has had a habit of breaking down quite frequently. A characteristically unreliable car is nothing to be thankful about. It was a totally earned win.

He was in the race, though. Its not a matter of opinion.

And I never said Kimi didn't deserve the win.

Choose to ignore it all you like. I dont see why its so hard to admit. I was thankful for Vettel breaking down in Valencia. Alonso would have never won otherwise. I can recognize that and dont feel it diminishes Alonso's acheivement. For you, I guess it does, though.

^ You know what, you should stop expecting everyone to think like the same way you do. Teams set out to compete against each other and win. Thankfulness, luck and such things don't exist. You may choose to be thankful, feel lucky, etc. It is just a way of looking at things and the degree varies. Don't compel everyone to adopt such romantic views.

We've seen some fantastic performances. Alonso in germany was his best for me, it was total domination. The best of Vettel maybe Suzuka, very hard track. Hami's best was Austin, and Maldonado's has to be the surprise of the year. Kimi's was a good win but he was lucky [it is my favourite of course]. I'm surprised no one mentioned Spa Jenson performance - untouchable. Webber nailed Monaco...

Voted Kimi because he's my favourite but it was not the best win off the year.

^ You know what, you should stop expecting everyone to think like the same way you do. Teams set out to compete against each other and win. Thankfulness, luck and such things don't exist. You may choose to be thankful, feel lucky, etc. It is just a way of looking at things and the degree varies. Don't compel everyone to adopt such romantic views.

Its not a 'romantic view' that Alonso wouldn't have won in Valencia without Vettel retiring. Same deal with Kimi's win and Lewis retiring.

As for luck not existing, it definitely does. Anything that happens that is completely out of your control is generally what 'luck' is. You can have good and bad luck. For Alonso, it was good luck that Vettel retired. Alonso could not influence whether or not Vettel retired. For Vettel, it was bad luck. Sure, his team(or Renault) was at fault, but that doesn't mean it wasn't bad luck for Vettel, who was not in control of whether or not the alternator lived or died.

This isn't 'romanticism'. This is basic, common sense stuff. I want to say I cant imagine how somebody could actually deny this stuff and refuse to be thankful for a rival retiring ahead of your driver, but with some of you guys, it really does make a lot of sense. Anything that you perceive might be taking credit away from your driver is not worth considering, obviously.

I dont feel this is about a different way of seeing things. This is some of you refusing to admit to being thankful. Would you have been just as happy/content if Lewis never retired? I doubt it.

There is no such thing as luck. Some teams do a better job in producing reliable cars, and when other teams produce unreliable cars, it is inferior job and you can't say that is out of your control.

So Vettel breaking down in Valenica was in his control? Or Hamilton breaking down in Singapore & AbDab was in his control? No they weren't, hence it is bad luck for them.

If a plane fell out of the sky and landed on you would that be not be bad luck? If a plane fell out of the sky and landed two feet away from you then would that not be good luck? You have no control over what happened just like Vettel and Hamilton and no control over the situation so it is bad luck for them.

In my opinion having a bad luck is a situation where you can't affect the outcome in any way. If you have even slightest chances avoiding the outcome, it isn't bad luck.
Examples:
Spa crash. It wasn't bad luck for Grosjean and Hamilton (both could have changed the outcome although Grosjean was at fault). But for Alonso and Perez it was bad luck, they had basically zero chances there. I don't count fighting for position and crashing as bad luck even if the other one was at fault.
And if car breaks down, it is bad luck if it is caused by SUBCONTRACTOR'S mistake. If it is caused by TEAM'S mistake, it isn't bad luck. And if a subcontractor does the same mistake a few times and there have been enough time to fix the problem (or change the subcontractor) it ceases to be bad luck, because TEAM could have done something about it. So I think that alternator was bad luck atleast earlier in the season. Later on they had time to do something about it, but was it enough I don't know. If alternator breaks next season, it is by no means bad luck. It is a known issue and team has had a year to fix that. But car failures are a little tricky to judge, because we spectators have only limited information. Can't always be sure whether team was responsible or not.